The real question is not whether Monsanto has hired a mercenary army, but whether it would surprise you if they did; which begs the further question: Do they really need an extra goon squad, when they can already use local, state, and federal “law enforcement” agencies to protect their genetically modified fiefdom? One of the perks of being a large corporation, it must be pointed out, is the security force that comes with it, a ready-conscripted army with no moral qualms whatsoever.

Someone’s living on–or even standing on–a piece of Earth you want to monocrop? Easy, just have the local sheriff show up to flash his badge (and gun), and if that doesn’t work, declare that person a terrorist and have the SWAT unit show up to bash their head in with tear gas canisters… er, to calm down the situation. Violence going down the hierarchy is perfectly acceptable, and local residents will most likely cheer the officers’ actions, because honestly, if that person didn’t want to get bashed in the head, she wouldn’t have been standing there (anarchists, tsk tsk…).

Monsanto doesn’t need Blackwater because Monsanto already is Blackwater. They’re symbiotic auxilliaries of the same machine: two divisions of the same army.